


just let yourself in

by TheMousePrince



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: First Date, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I tried anyway, Light Angst, M/M, Slice of Life, honestly this is mostly fluffy and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:17:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10343805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMousePrince/pseuds/TheMousePrince
Summary: just let yourself in when you get here <3Even has the keys to Kollektivet and it's making him anxious (or I am shit at summaries and this is, mainly, a fluffy take on Isak and Even's first proper date).





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tiptopevak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiptopevak/gifts).



**just let yourself in when you get here <3**   
  
Even stands in front of the door for a good five minutes after knocking before he dares. The pit he feels growing just below his sternum is pulling at his fingers, like a stiff puppeteer, making them unlock his phone every time it goes to sleep.   
  
**just let yourself in when you get here <3** ****  
****  
It all went so fast. From when he’d first glanced at that pretty blonde boy on the first day of school to this day, the 14th of February. (He taps his thumb against his fingers, enumerating under his breath, slightly embarrassed he still needs this support to do simple math.) A bit more than 6 months. It took him half a year to crush on a boy on his first day at a new school, cheat on his girlfriend, dump  _ her _ , flip in front of  _ him _ , almost ruin everything (almost ruin  _ himself _ ), spend weeks going back and forth between his parents’ and Isak’s, reassuring  _ them _ , and getting reassured by  _ him _ -  
  
**just let yourself in when you get here <3** ****  
****  
It all went so fast. In comparison, his relationship with Sonja lasted forever.   
You’re not supposed to stay with your first sweetheart. Even in old-fashioned romcoms, the young lovers are separated and go about their lives for a while before bumping into each other again years later, faces a bit more worned-out, smiles a bit more tense, but their hearts still longing, burning from that first flame, never forgotten.   
But in romcoms, things don’t  _ just _ happen. In movies, everything has its place, a goal, a point.   
  
But stuck outside of the movie’s diegesis, Even and Sonja had just stayed together. Funny how two people can grow apart and still stay close. Their relationship became dull and comfortable. Like a memory recalled on one of your regular journeys, like a ritual. You pass a certain storefront and notice the indented markings in the door frame, your expression softens as it comes back to you for a short visit.

Even mechanically unlocks his phone again and blinks away multicoloured constellations after his screen lights up.

**just let yourself in when you get here <3**

He swings his backpack off his shoulders before working the front door’s lock with his new keys. It takes him a few tries—and muttering swear words under his breath like a spell—to figure the lock out.    
  
He refused the shiny and polished set of keys when Isak handed it to him the week prior. He blushed and took a step back. Isak refusing to make eye contact with him for more than two seconds at a time did not help him feel confident about this (seemingly) random display of trust. But Eskild, who never seemed to be very far away, grabbed the keys from Isak and pushed them a bit too hard into Even’s hand before pressing his fingers closed on the cold metal.   
  
“You’ve always been part of the Kollektiv, Even dear. And once you’re in, you’re in.”   
  
Even smiled then, even as his brain blared alarms. He thought about how he already had trouble finding sleep, lying next to Isak, sharing his lover’s bed, thinking of how he was imposing. He had spent most of his time at Isak’s and it felt wrong. And right. Every night, after he’d cursed his nails for not growing back fast enough to be bitten daily, he would swear that this night was the last. (for a while anyway.) The last night he’d spend at Isak’s place. It’s not as if his parents would mind if he invited Isak over. It was his turn. What was so wrong with his own bed?   
Then Isak would take a breath too deep to be ignored and Even would snap out of his ruminations to gently smooth the lines creasing Isak’s forehead with the palm of his hand, before moving to the space between his eyebrows, with only his index and middle finger, and press down with the utmost care. He had seen the same calming pressure done in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and had tried it on Isak the first night he’d noticed him looking so severe in his sleep. Just like that first night, Isak’s face would relax under his massages and he’d exhale deeply and, sometimes, the corner of his mouth would twitch upwards. Even would scoot down the bed to align his head with Isak’s and close his eyes. And he and his promise would drift off to sleep.   
  
He never used the keys before today. He tries to not think too much about it.   
And fails.   
  
“Halla!”   
  
The greeting bounces off the dark and empty hallway. The flat’s soundtrack is disappointingly only composed of his heart beating into his ears and the distant humming of the refrigerator. Even bites his lower lip and attempts to gently close the door behind him, flinching as it slams into place ignoring his efforts, as modern armoured doors do.

There is something about being in a space—usually always busy, loud, and bright—now still, silent, and dark for the first time. It feels wrong, like walking up a staircase and climbing the last step only to realise you’d already reached the floor and, for a second, your foot trips on the absence of the expected.   
The thought lodges itself in the pit above Even’s stomach and digs itself a cold nest there. Even feels his phonecase dig into his hand as he unlocks his screen to stare at Isak’s text once more.   
  
**just let yourself in when you get here <3**

Isak never said he would be home to greet him, that’s why he told him to use his keys. (obviously.) Even breathes out loudly and tries a smile. (fake it until you make it.) 

Isak will get home later.   
(home. such an alien word. so casual yet oh so personal when you look at it from up close.)   
  
Somehow, Even doesn’t feel entitled to turn on the lights of the hallway. This is not his flat (isak is not his) after all. He touches the wall on his left with one hand while the other aims his lit-up phone at the darkness in front of him. He reaches Isak’s closed room and is about to open it when he thinks he sees movement at the bottom of his vision.   
His heart seizes for a second. He takes a deep breath in and turns off his phone. He waits for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.  _ Almost _ darkness, actually. An orangey light is coming from under Isak’s door. It seems to flicker and Even thinks he sees a shadow go from left to right and to the left again.   
  
And the smell of smoke.

(fuck!) Fire.   
  
Even opens the door too hard and is startled when it stops mid-way with a muffled sound that reverberates down to the doorknob.   
  
“AOUCH!” Isak steps back from behind the door, both hands on his nose, his eyes tearing up.   
  
Even blinks.   
  
And it clicks.  
  
“Baby, I’m so sorry!” Even drops his backpack and is at Isak’s side in one big step. “You OK?” He wants to push Isak’s hands away from his face to inspect it but he hesitates. His long fingers flutter around Isak’s face, unsure where to land. Isak stops whimpering to take a deep breath. Slowly, as if afraid his nose might fall off, he moves his hands away from his face. He sniffles and after a couple of seconds, when nothing detaches, wiggles his nose. It remains firmly in place.   
  
“I’m fine.” Isak looks up at Even and smiles. The pull of the skin makes him wince and a tear drops from his lashes.    
  
Even stares at it as if it were a car crashing in slow motion. With a kitten at the wheel.   
  
“You’re hurt.”   
  
Isak shrugs. “I’ve been hurt worse.”   
  
“When?” says Even, frowning.   
  
Isak’s left eye twitches. “In the...past.”   
  
“Liar.”   
  
“You can’t prove it.” Isak says, nose bright red, his eyebrows knitted together in affront.   
  
Even finally smiles and reaches for Isak’s cheek. He wipes the tear with his thumb and leans in for a kiss.   
  
And another.   
  
“Isak?” Their noses are touching lightly, their lips hovering over each other.   
  
“Hm?”   
  
“Why is it so dark in here?”   
  
“Oh f-” Isak steps back and seems to take in his surroundings for the first time. He coughs and fiddles with his hair and Even realises the room isn’t that dark, actually. It’s filled with candles. There’s even a stick of incense balancing precariously on top of a teacup on the windowsill. He is afraid to move and knock one of the tealights to the ground accidently.   
  
Even is ten again, and his limbs are not growing at the same speed. He reaches for a glass of water and breaks a lamp. He sits down and knocks his funny bone on a table corner. He maims anyone standing too close to him.

Even, at ten years old, is a giant.   
Even, at nineteen, has stopped growing. But, sometimes, he still feels like he is taking too much space.

Isak spreads his arm, opens his mouth.   
And lets his arm drop to his sides again, defeated.   
  
“You...redesigning?” Even prompts, nodding at Isak’s bed turned sideways and pushed up against the back wall.   
  
“I was trying to make the place a bit more…” Isak cringes and raises his fingers to make air quotes “...koselig”. He rolls his eyes and looks away, his voice now almost a whisper, “Since we never had a proper date.”   
  
“A date?” Even is one big smile.   
  
Isak smirks, keeping his eyes on the big flat screen, now off its table and resting on the ground. “Ja…”   
  
Even wants to tease Isak for this show of romanticism but the affection he feels decides to bubble out through kisses instead of banter.   
  
“A date?” Even touches his forehead with Isak’s, noses grazing, and gives him a peck on the lips.   
  
Isak nods almost imperceptibly and lifts his head to catch Even’s top lip.   
  
“A date.” Even says again, in a tone both assertive and soft. “A date. A date. A date, date, date.”   
Isak keeps trying to shut him up with his lips but Even still manages to pepper the delicious “date” in between lips and tongue.   
  
They end up—breathless—on the floor next to the itchy and checked blanket Isak had had to stop adjusting when he’d heard Even struggling with the front door.   
  
“So,” Even presses his thumb against Isak’s jaw, following the line up to his ear, “what’s next in line on our First Date?”   
  
Isak opens his eyes halfway, looking pleasantly dazed. “I thought we could watch some films…”   
  
“Some films?”   
  
“Some films.”   
  
“Just like that, huh? You’re in charge of the film selection now?”   
  
Isak frowns. “I’ve always been in charge.”   
  
Even’s laugh bursts out of his chest, making it hard for Isak to conceal a smile. “Of course, how silly of me to have thought you didn’t know anything about movies before you met me.”   
  
“Very presumptuous, yes.”   
  
“Arrogant, even!” Even adds, a look of self-righteous concern exaggeratedly painted across his face.   
  
Isak hums and tilts his chin up, silently beckoning for a kiss. That he gets.   
  
“So,” The boys scoot over to sit on the blanket, their backs against a pile of pillows resting at the end of Isak’s bed. “What masterpiece are you going to show me first?”   
  
Isak sticks his tongue under his incisor to stop himself from smiling too big and gets his laptop, that he has plugged into the TV screen, and opens an IMDB page.

Even’s smile falls and the light in his eyes deadens.   
  
“So!” Isak chirps. “What do you think?”   
  
Even is staring at the laptop’s screen. He opens his mouth, takes a big breath in, holds it.   
Gives up, letting it out as a heavy sigh.   
  
“What? You’ve seen his movies already?” Isak is biting the inside of his cheek, his face slightly scrunched in mock worry. “Even? Baby?”   
  
“I cann-” Even’s voice is breaking and he clears his throat, licks his lips. “Michael Bay?”   
  
Isak, teeth clenched, is engaging in a last battle against a revealing smile.   
  
“Michael fucking Bay?” Even finally looks up at Isak. He sees his furrowed brow and the distinctive bulk of his jaw popping under the skin of his cheeks, and softens. “Really? I mean-” His voice quiets. “It’s OK if you want to watch it. Whatever you want, baby.”   
  
Even tries for a smile but his expression is so sour Isak gives up and starts giggling. His body is shaking and his eyes water. “Your face!”   
  
Even does not stay confused for long and Isak finds himself on his back, pinned down by his boyfriend’s hands burrowing in his sides, trying to tickle the smugness off his face.   
  
“You’re the worst!” Even says, hands scurrying over Isak’s ribs and belly. “The worst!”   
  
Isak gets a hold of Even’s wrists and catches his breath, tears of laughter now trickling down his ears.   
  
“I’m the worst?”   
  
Even is not hiding his smile. He leans down and holds his face an inch from Isak’s. “The absolute worst.”   
  
Isak makes a perfect O with his mouth, eyes widening and glinting.   
  
“Well… I’m glad you are capable of admitting defeat. You’re right. I am the worst. No one is worse than me.” Isak stifles another giggle. His heart is beating so hard against his chest he can feel it rocking their bodies in unison. He tries to calm his breathing, slow down his heartbeat, remember where he is and what he was about to do or say. But it’s hard when Even is looking at him like this. Even’s stare skipping from Isak’s eyes to his lips, his breath caressing his open mouth, tickling the tip of his tongue.   
  
They kiss and feel and explore for so long that, when they finally huddle together to start the movie (“Even I know Michael Bay is trash, come on! Plus I wouldn’t ruin this by trusting myself. I asked Mikael for recommendations.”), they can hear birds chirping outside Isak’s window despite the night looking still firmly set.   
  
On the screen, a man pierces the surface of the water in slow motion and the first chords of the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony start playing. Isak turns to Even and brings his lips to his boyfriend’s ear.   
  
“Happy first date, baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I actually finished and posted in years and I hope it's alright.
> 
> A thousand thanks to my amazing betas [fandomlimb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomlimb/pseuds/fandomlimb) and [sparklefartstheunicorn](https://sparklefartstheunicorn.tumblr.com/) without whom this would have been an absolute trainwreck.
> 
> I got prompted by the lovely [tiptopevak]() to write a first date for Isak and Even. I know the hotel was probably their first proper date but it ended so terribly that I thought Isak, being the romantic sap that he is, would have wanted to have another first date. With a sweeter ending.
> 
> The film they end up watching is "The Fall" by Tarsem Singh and I recommend you watch it.
> 
> My tumblr is [monstermonstre]() and I'm always up for a chat so don't hesitate to come and say hi!


End file.
